Transducer repair

[dennishoddy]

I have a Humminbird 597 HD DI on the front of the boat with the MotorGuide Xi5 trolling motor. Last time I was out, the locator was giving a lot of false readings. Found a bad spot on the cable where the outer insulation is broken, so I suspect the cable is broken there too.
Anybody have any luck repairing the cables?

[Ranger09]

Not fimiliar with HB but I'm sure it's pretty close to a Lowrance and that answer is no. Get a new transducer.....Ranger

[Redge]

Not fimiliar with HB but I'm sure it's pretty close to a Lowrance and that answer is no. Get a new transducer.....Ranger

X2!

[Cray]

Depends on how good you are at soldering. Pretty easy repair with soldering skills and heat shrink tubing. Main thing is to make sure you resold er the tinfoil looking shield. Have repaired several that still work today.

[dennishoddy]

Well, the issue is that the unit is obsolete. I found one transducer on line, and the price was ridiculous.
I've got nothing to loose so here we go.
I love that MotorGuide, but its sure tough to run a trolling motor mounted transducer with that style of power head, and I'm sure that's what caused the break. I've watched several video's about how some folks are having to jury rig springs, and all kinds of guides to keep the same thing that happened to me from happening to them....pinched transducer cables.

[dennishoddy]

Depends on how good you are at soldering. Pretty easy repair with soldering skills and heat shrink tubing. Main thing is to make sure you resold er the tinfoil looking shield. Have repaired several that still work today.

Soldering is not an issue, and I have plenty of shrink tubing. The early part of my working life was spent as a circuit board troubleshooter and repair tech. Now you throw circuit boards away, and swap.
Good to hear the cables can be repaired.

[Cray]

Go here and for the price of a replacement transducer and get you one of these.da 'ducer apparatus® - Podunk (po dungk) A small isolated town, region, or place that is regarded as unimportant. . . .. Rickie is a board sponsor and is very active on the electronics board. Broken cables will be a thing of the past.

[Cray]

Soldering is not an issue, and I have plenty of shrink tubing. The early part of my working life was spent as a circuit board troubleshooter and repair tech. Now you throw circuit boards away, and swap.
Good to hear the cables can be repaired.

Cut your cable and slide a piece of heat shrink big enough to fit cable and your repairs. Offset your splices where they are not side by side. Heat shrink those repairs then coat with liquid tape then slide down large heat shrink to cover complete repair then coat with liquid electrical tape.

[dennishoddy]

Cut your cable and slide a piece of heat shrink big enough to fit cable and your repairs. Offset your splices where they are not side by side. Heat shrink those repairs then coat with liquid tape then slide down large heat shrink to cover complete repair then coat with liquid electrical tape.

Thanks! Appreciate the info. Deer season is winding down for awhile, and I need to get my crappie fix in.

[dennishoddy]

Go here and for the price of a replacement transducer and get you one of these.da 'ducer apparatus® - Podunk (po dungk) A small isolated town, region, or place that is regarded as unimportant. . . .. Rickie is a board sponsor and is very active on the electronics board. Broken cables will be a thing of the past.

That's cheap compared to the transducer price I was quoted by the only place that still has one.......Humminbird. I got on the main forum electronics forum and read for awhile. He is a very knowledgeable person when it comes to locators. I need to hang out there for awhile and read more. Picked up a lot of good information already about what frequency's to use, and why. The why part was really informative.

I don't have side finder on the front locator, just on the back. I run a Lowrance HDS7 at the consol with side finder and a rear mount transducer. I like the Humminbird. When running the sonar and down scan while idling around with the trolling motor down looking for brush, I'll see fish first on the Hummer, then the Lowrance will pick them up. They both do the job. I just don't see the need to buy a new unit or a new transducer if this one can be fixed.

Just a thought.....how did we ever catch crappie before electronics?
Never mind, just an old geezer musing. LOL.